Papyrus' POV

Orange beads of perspiration collected at Papyrus' temporal bone as he furiously beat his spaghetti noodles into submission with a wooden spoon. Smoke clouded around his face, and a bitter, burning stench filled the kitchen. This obviously meant that everything was going perfectly! This would surely be his best batch of spaghetti yet!

...If only Sans were there to enjoy it with him.

Somewhere along the line, Papyrus' feelings for his brother had... changed. He found himself blushing whenever Sans carelessly threw an arm around him, and his SOUL would stutter whenever Sans flashed him one of his rare, genuine smiles, the ones that didn't come from puns or whoopee cushions, but true happiness.

Something had changed in Sans as well, but... not in a good way. Those already-rare happy smiles of his had become even more elusive, and he stayed at Grillby's later than ever, coming home drunk at least three nights out of every week.

It worried Papyrus sick, and it was working him down to his last nerve.

Only a second after Papyrus turned the oven off and moved the smoking, hissing pot of spaghetti to a separate burner, the front door opened with a soft 'click', and Sans stumbled into the living room, his eye lights hazy and unfocused.

Before Papyrus could turn his head to lecture his brother, he felt two arms around his waist. "S-SANS?" He squawked, orange magic flooding to his cheekbones. "WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING?"

"*hehe... papy..." Sans giggled. He hiccuped softly and nuzzled his head against Papyrus' spine. "*we should... should make out. lemme bone ya, papppppps-!" He slurred.

Papyrus' blushed darkened, this time from anger rather than embarrassment. There was no way Sans could possibly know about Papyrus' feelings for him, but he still felt like he was being mocked. And to make such obscene comments... how dare he?

Papyrus whirled around and shoved Sans off of him roughly, sending the shorter skeleton stumbling backwards. "GET OFF OF ME, YOU HOPELESS ALCOHOLIC! AND STOP MAKING SUCH DISGUSTING COMMENTS!" He barked, sharply turning back to his spaghetti.

Papyrus heard a low growl sound from behind him. A moment later, something hard and heavy collided with the back of his skull, and the tall skeleton let out a grunt of agony as stars danced before his eye sockets.

The pain began to diminish after a few moments, and Papyrus groaned, rubbing the back of his skull with a gloved hand. After checking his stats, he quickly deduced that he had only lost five HP. A discarded bone attack lay a few feet away, a crack in the base of it. Papyrus' eye sockets widened.

Sans had attacked him.

Papyrus swiveled his body around to face his brother, silently hoping his fear wasn't showing on his face.

"*don't f-ckin' call me an alcoholic, you ungrateful..." Sans hiccuped. "*...dingus..."

Sans' right eye socket glowed a glaring cyan in the darkness of their home, and Papyrus felt panic grip his SOUL in a choke hold.

Sans' famous "terrifying blue eye" had made an appearance several times when he was defending Papyrus, whether it be from childhood bullies, or greasy predators who tried to sneak unsafe substances into Papyrus' milkshakes at Grillby's. Papyrus knew very well what that eye meant.

But it had never been directed at him before.

Taking advantage of Sans' lack of coordination, Papyrus lifted his hand into the air, and Sans dropped to the floor, writhing desperately. His SOUL had darkened from its usual cyan hue, to a much darker blue shade.

"N-NYEHEH! YOU'RE BLUE NOW!" Papyrus shouted. He leaped over the drunken heap that was his brother and bounded up the stairs to his room, only releasing Sans from the Blue Attack after his door had been safely locked.

Something heavy slammed clumsily against the door.

Papyrus gasped sharply and hurriedly pressed his spine against the door, pushing against the persistent force of his brother with all of his might. The pounding continued, and Papyrus pulled his knees to his chest, silently hoping that this terrible evening would be over soon.